Iraqi security sources blame Daesh terrorist group for deadly attacks

Two policemen and one civilian were killed Wednesday in two separate bombings in Iraq’s Kirkuk and Baghdad provinces, according to local security sources.

“Two police officers were killed and another two injured while attempting to defuse an explosive device,” Hamed al-Obeidi, a Kirkuk police captain said.

The device, he said, had been planted by Daesh terrorists in a residential part of Kirkuk’s Al-Rashad sub-district.

Last October, the Iraqi authorities announced that Kirkuk’s Hawija district -- previously considered a Daesh stronghold -- had been purged of all terrorist elements.

In Baghdad province, meanwhile, Army First-Lieutenant Hatim al-Jaberi said a civilian had been killed and three others injured when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the province’s Al-Taji district.

Al-Jaberi, too, blamed Daesh for the bombing.

Last December, Iraqi officials declared that Daesh’s military presence in Iraq had been all but dismantled.

Some officials, however, fear the group maintains “sleeper cells” that have continued to carry out attacks -- on both civilians and security forces -- in certain parts of the country.